I'll Be Home for Christmas

This year was the first year that we got to stay home and have our very own Christmas. I guess, technically we stayed home for Christmas in 2007 because the twins were less than a month old and had only gotten out of the NICU a week and half earlier so we definitely weren't going anywhere. It wasn't the same though. That year, being home was thrust upon us and I wasn't ready. My Dad was so sweet and sent us a tree so it would feel more like Christmas at our house. It's the same tree we still have, although a little worse for the wear.

This year, we embraced having a Christmas at our home without the hassle of holiday travel. It was simple, and lovely and so fun.

I enjoyed getting our house ready, putting up the Nativity and hanging stockings.

(I've learned the fastest way to get Marc to do something like putting hooks under the mantle is to just start doing it myself. If he sees me with a drill, his danger sensor goes off and he happily comes and takes over to prevent disaster. I always get the job done, it just takes me a few tries sometimes. Marc prefers if there is only one hole.)

The snow had melted the week leading up to Christmas but, like magic, we woke up to this on Christmas Eve morning.

Christmas Eve is doubly special for us because it is also Marc's birthday. We were having too much fun to take very many pictures, but we spent the day with good friends. We had dinner together which ended up consisting of mashed potatoes, asparagus with bacon, jello salad and rolls because the turkey decided that it did not want to cook in a reasonable amount of time. We had the traditional root beer tasting in the evening featuring 12 different kinds of root beer. We also attempted a Christmas puppet show about Christ's birth. Our boys were not terribly cooperative. We all worked on a Christmas puzzle together and sang Christmas carols. For dessert we had Marc's peppermint ice cream birthday cake, some homemade Buckeyes and the turkey which had finally been cooked to a safe internal temperature.

Christmas morning was awesome. The boys waited patiently while Mommy made sure everything was ready and Daddy dragged himself out of bed. They didn't get us up until 6:30. It could have been so much worse.

Just to be mean I made them take another picture or ten on the stairs, but then we finally went in to see what Santa brought.

Again, we were too caught up in the joy of the moment to do much with the camera, but we did get a couple of candids that were too good to pass up.

After everything was done, we had the boys pose with their loot and we took video of them telling us about their Christmas. This is a tradition from my family- one that I hated as a child. (Sorry Dad!)

But I think it will be fun to look back and see what they were interested in each year.

My bet is that there will always be a lot of books in the pictures.

We just can't help ourselves when it comes to the written word.

Every Christmas I always feel like we've gotten them too much that they are going to be spoiled brats, but every year they are so grateful, so excited, so happy.

I still think we should try to cut back but I also feel like we must be doing something right. We loved being home for Christmas.

Random Recall

Here are a few random things I found as I was clearing out my phone in preparation for a new one.

What do little boys do with lacing cards and bike helmets? What any sensible person would do... booby trap the stairs of course. They were planning to fill the bike helmets with water or dirt, or possibly both before I put the kibosh on their operation.

 

The boys love watermelon, but every once in a while we get a really bland one in our bountiful basket. The boys in general seem oblivious to the taste of watermelon, they will gobble it down regardless, but one day Elijah, who was on his fifth piece, suddenly stopped eating and looked up at us. He asked, "Is it possible for watermelon to be.... not... good?"

Gabriel had had a rough day in the ladies department. He had announced my age to the entire church congregation and told a girl that he has a crush on that she was "big". Marc explained to him that you shouldn't talk to women about their age, or their size. You never use the words, "old", "big", or "fat". Gabriel took all of this in and then asked, "Why can't I say anything to a girl without it hurting her feelings?" Marc was proud that his son had come to this conclusion at such an early age. Marc was well into adulthood before he figured it out.

Our boys love to play Plants vs. Zombies 2 on the iPad. There are several different themed areas in this game including what David John refers to as "Agent Egypt" and "Pirate Seasons". (It's actually Ancient Egypt and Pirate Seas.)

Speaking of seasons, David John recently informed me that he could name all of them in order. I said I would love to hear it. I had to stop myself from laughing as he listed them off. "First, Easter. Second, Hallowing. Third Christmas. Fifth Thanksgiving. Last, Fall." Nailed it, buddy.

The boys, like me as a child, do not always love casseroles. Recently, however they became concerned not just by the contents of the pan but the name of the dish. "Why are these called castle rolls?"

One more. Gabriel and Elijah have been learning about parts of speech in first grade. Marc was having a discussion with them and Gabriel correctly defined the word "noun". Marc then asked the boys if they knew what a verb was. David John, who happened to be walking by, said, "I know! Verbs are things that build nest and sit on their eggs." The twins couldn't stop laughing.

Seven-up

Yup. We are up to seven. SEVEN! How can these boys be seven? That's just crazy talk. I mean, they still have all of their baby teeth. I've done the math several times because it just doesn't seem right, but I come up with seven every time. I guess it's time to just accept that another year has gone by despite my pleas with them to stop growing.
Since we were headed to Denver for Thanksgiving, the poor kids spent their actual birthday in the car. I did take treats to their classrooms and they got a book from their school but then we loaded them up in the van for a very long drive.
I think this actually worked to their advantage because then we felt the need to give them some travel-friendly gifts on their birthday and some additional presents the following day when we had cake and sang to them. So, in the van they got the LEGO Movie to watch and some giant activity books. They also got the thrilling experience of hitting a giant patch of black ice in the middle of nowhere Wyoming and spinning off the road into a ditch. Marc did a great job, making sure the van went between two posts instead of hitting them. When he walked up to the road to talk to some good samaritans who stopped to help, he said the road was so slick he could barely stand on it without falling over. Anyway, we called roadside assistance who were having an extremely difficult time finding our location on a map. Welcome to Wyoming. Three separate vehicles stopped to help, all full of North Dakotans on their way home for Thanksgiving. I've said it before but I LOVE NORTH DAKOTANS. Nicest people on earth. Between the three vehicles they managed to pull us out of the ditch before roadside assistance could even get there. We felt very very blessed.
We did make it to Denver safely, and the next day we celebrated their birthday for real. Uncle Marcus made these amazing Star Wars cakes.

In case you can't read it, the Yoda cake says, "A Happy Birthday you must have." Marcus totally free-handed those. Amazing.
Here are Gabriel and Elijah getting ready to blow out their candles. They've got that competitive gleam in their eyes. They wanted to see who could blow out all the candles first.

They got many Star Wars presents including mugs, some awesome chapter books, Lego watches and some markers. I also made them a set of pool-noodle lightsabers. Best time and money investment ever. These kept the boys entertained the entire trip and they continue to be useful at home. I made ten because, you know, there are five boys and they each have two hands so clearly ten is the bare minimum. I don't think they fully appreciate how awesome the handles are or that each one is completely unique but I was pretty proud of myself.

As seven-year-olds Gabriel and Elijah are still loud and rambunctious, but they are also helpful and usually trustworthy. They really helped out with the puppies at Marcus and Rebecca's house. They both love to read and tear through books, although they like to read different things. Gabriel has read the entire Magic Treehouse series and loves fiction. Elijah prefers books about nature, or graphic novels. They both love anything by Roald Dahl. Both take gymnastics and art lessons and both excel in school. We love these boys so much and are so proud to say we are the parents of these amazing people. Happy Birthday Gabe and Elijah!

Giving Thanks

We have a lot to be thankful for, not least our five boys. Here are a few specific things we are thankful for:
Good Schools
We are blessed to have a great elementary for Gabriel and Elijah and a wonderful preschool for David John and Benjamin. The preschool had a Thanksgiving play and feast. David John and Benjamin played their parts well.

Kids Night at Tutti Frutti
Family time at Tutti Frutti is always awesome. Since it frozen yogurt and not ice cream we usually count it as dinner and then supplement with a healthy snack when we get home. Of course, the boys always loudly ask while we are there, "Mom! Dad! Is this dinner?!?" Did I mention we are also very grateful for people who choose just not to judge.

Blue Skies, or lack thereof
One thing I LOVE about living in North Dakota are the beautiful skies here. They aren't always blue, but they are always gorgeous.
I love seeing the sunrise from my kitchen window every morning.

I love seeing the sunset when I drive home from a long day in Bismarck.

I love the frequent, beautiful rainbows we get here.

And I love the sundogs when it gets so cold that ice crystallizes in the air.

Elijah
I found some darling papers that Elijah wrote at school about what he is grateful for. I don't think I'll reproduce his awesome spellings but his list pretty much sums everything up.
"I am thankful for God and Jesus and Mom and Dad and love and clothes and food and light and brothers and blessings and friends and family and house and USA and money and school. I'm thankful for everything.

If Wishes Were Fishes

Well, no one asked for a fish for Christmas but what they did ask for is almost as special. You can tell that they wrote these in early November which happens to be shortly after Halloween. For posterity, here are the Ricks boys' Christmas wish lists for 2014 with original spelling.

Gabriel
My Chricmis List
Love Gabe
1. a scatbord
2. a bag of cookeis
3. a box of candy
4. a snoe globe
5. a airplane
6. a robot
7. a monster

Elijah
1. a 400 pes legos at desne land        (400 piece legos at Disneyland)
2. a 700 pees legos                            (700 piece legos)
3. a 100 pes pasl                                (100 piece puzzle)
4. ene star wors legos                        (any Star Wars legos)
5. halwing dinsor toy                         (Halloween dinosaur toy)
6. skre thigs av hlwing book             (scary things of Halloween book)
7. a skletin                                         (a skeleton)
8. is krim tuns                                    (ice cream, tons)
9. kade land gam                               (Candy Land game)
10. ROBOTS                                     (robots)
11. a mot cintrol ras kor                    (a remote control race car)
12. coke robts                                    (cookie robots)
13. choklit dinasrs                             (chocolate dinosaurs)
14. a cling up toy                               (a cleaning up toy)
15. mot cintrl mostrs                         (remote control monsters)

David John
David John's Christmas List
1. Frankenstein monster toy
2. a giant R2D2 toy
3. a giant trash chomper
4. a whole set of duplo blocks
5. a creepy zombie hand
6. Star Wars legos
7. concentration game
8. robot lips
9. robot pencil sharpener
10. a snap and break toy
11. silly monster toy
12. starcraft toys
13. gum
14. Jack and the Beanstalk book
15. Cold Prickly and Warm Fuzzy book

Benjamin
Dear Santa,
I want to tell you what presents I want.
1. a chocolate present
2. a scary blue present
3. a real present
4. a red present that has a ghost and a witch on it
5. a big witch on the wall
6. a big ghost costume
7. a lot of presents
8. a Wild Kratt movie
9. a wild snake
10. a Ghostbuster's snake
11. a real snake
12. a magic paint book
13. a robot toy
14. suction ball
15. car toy like Spiderman car
16. Spiderman toy

Who You Gonna Call?

Ghostbusters! That's right, it's time for the Halloween pictures.

They boys picked out their pumpkins and got ready to carve.

Tobias is still too young to draw, so he used our push-in plastic pieces.

Here are the other boys' carvings. Left to right those are the creative works of Benjamin, David John, Elijah and Gabriel. Lights on...

...and lights off.

The boys LOVE the movie Ghostbusters. David John wanted to be the "smarshmallow man" but we talked him into being Ray Stantz. Here are all of the costumes. The boys helped make their own proton packs and I pieced the rest of the costumes together. I made the Slimer costume out of a green pillowcase, a ball cap and some felt. I'm pretty much MacGyver.

Here they are all geared up and ready to catch a ghost. You've got Egon Spengler (who apparently goes cross-eyed when you take his glasses off), Winston Zeddemore (I already know that Benjamin does not have dark enough skin. The boys told me several times.), Peter Venkman ("Ray, what did you do Ray?") and Ray Stantz ("I thinked of the smarshmallow man!").

Oh yeah, they're packing.

He's small, he's green, he's Slimer! Too bad he's so cute. He's not exactly scary.

The whole gang loved trick-or-treating and our neighbors loved seeing our gang of Ghostbusters. 

They got a sick amount of candy and were on a sugar high for days. I think there was probably as much sugar in those Halloween buckets as there was in the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Robot Rally

Grandma sent robot masks. This is very appropriate because David John is fond of running up to the microphone at church and saying, "I am a baby robot" in a very good robot voice. It kills the primary children every time.

Running Scared

For the second year in a row, we helped out with the Zombie Run 5K. Technically it's a walk/shuffle/run. Anyway, I wasn't as involved with the planning as I was last year, but my boys and I, along with some friends, dressed up as zombies to scare the runners. This year, Tobias was old enough to help out so he also got zombified. Here we are ready to scare:

For the record, my boys did my makeup which is why I look more like a member of KISS and less like a zombie. Although, now that I'm making that comparison, maybe those two things aren't so disparate after all. Both are definitely creepy. I guess the primary difference is that zombies place a high value on brains.
Anyway, the boys had a blast hiding in the park behind our house and jumping out at runners as they came by. Like last year, some could not control their giggles at the sight of so many tiny zombies, especially Tobias. Others, I think, were genuinely creeped out by the idea of undead children. My friend Amelia thinks that next year we need to set up a cornfield behind our house for the kiddos to run out of. That would be pretty awesome. Then we'd really have them running scared.

Sorry, So Sorry

Poor Gabriel feels criticism intensely. Any slight correction to his behavior often ends in tears and then a sorry note. While I wish he wouldn't take things so hard, I do adore the sorry notes. I thought I would share two of my favorites.

I can't remember what either of these notes was apologizing for but I remember chuckling when I saw that this one had check marks. Gabriel's first grade teacher gives check marks when things are correct, so the check mark has replaced the heart as Gabriel's symbol of love and approval.

I also love what he wrote on the bottom. I'm pretty sure that last word is supposed to read "best" but it absolutely looks like "bust". Having nursed five children, if someone tells me "Mom's are the bust!" I'll take it as a compliment.

Here is another popular Gabriel writing technique: rainbow writing. It's adorable as is his spelling.

I am so glad you appreciate my "kooking". I hope that you still like my kooking when you are a teenager and having a kooky mom can be embarrassing.

Thank you for the darling notes, Gabe. I'm sorry you are stuck with me for a mom, so sorry.

One Point Five

Last month Tobias hit 18 months. The good news is he now old enough for nursery! The bad news is that his naughty antics have definitely increased. He still isn't talking much. He tends to learn a new word, use it for a week and then drop it. For the record, his first word was "trash" which he pronounced "ash, ash". He also enjoys making up his own sign language which more resembles baseball signals. His sign for drink consists of three movements involving both hands and one ear. He's a handful that's for sure. Here are a few personality shots from the last six months:

He loves his technology, a little too much.

He can happily cycle through iPad pages all day.

Also, he loves to pretend he's playing Angry Birds.

He can't get enough of the pool. Bobbing up and down and playing peek-a-boo with the senior citizens is his favorite.

All of his brothers are in gymnastics and sometimes he just can't stay off the mats.

No, this isn't a horror film. It's just pasta for dinner.

Who needs a stick?

We can finally put him down during his naps, but he likes to sleep in strange positions.

Did I mention he LOVES books? I think he was trying to combine his love of swimming with his love of books by creating a book pool. Shortly after this photo, all of the children's books were relocated to some higher shelves in the basement.

This is the "I'm going to jump off the coffee table!" face. He jumps off the coffee table a lot.

Woo-hoo! Just landed on the couch. 

"Wanna see it again? I can do this all day."

I don't even remember what he wanted but I think I gave in. Just look at that pleading face.

Tobias prefers chapter books to his board books. The chapter books make a more satisfying sound when he flips through them. Also, what more comfortable place to read than suspended between the couch and table?

Can you tell that he had chocolate chip pancakes with powdered sugar for breakfast?

Yep, his Grandma spoils him but so do we. He located his own binky, laid down and started rubbing his ears. Time for a nap. Sometimes I wish I was one and a half.